What Is African
Heterodox Economics?
Dominant economic orthodoxies have failed to explain or address Africa’s realities. AHEN advances pluralist alternatives better suited to the continent’s development challenges.
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SCHOLARS
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COUNTRIES
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RESEARCH THEMES
Why Orthodoxy Falls
Short in Africa
Across the African continent and its diaspora, it has become increasingly clear that dominant economic orthodoxies — including free market fundamentalism, fiscal austerity, financialisation, and undue corporate influence over public policy — have failed to deliver shared prosperity.
Instead, they have often deepened inequality, weakened productive capacity, exacerbated vulnerability to crisis, and undermined social and ecological well-being.
AHEN advances a new vision of economics that serves African societies, not abstract models or external interests.
- Free market fundamentalism
- Fiscal austerity regimes
- Financialisation of economies
- Undue corporate influence on policy
Heterodox Traditions
01.
Political Economy
Examines power, class, and the relationship between politics and economic systems.
02.
Feminist Economics
Centres gender, care work, and the lived economic experiences of women and marginalised groups.
03.
Institutional Economics
Focuses on rules, norms, organisations, and the role of institutions in shaping economic behaviour.
04.
Post-Keynesian Economics
Emphasises demand, uncertainty, financial instability, and the non-neutrality of money.
05.
Ecological Economics
Integrates environmental limits and sustainability into economic analysis.
06.
Decolonial Economics
Challenges Eurocentric economic frameworks and centres Africa's historical and contemporary experiences.
Heterodox Traditions
01.
Intellectual Independence Matters
Economic ideas must be independent of powerful domestic and external interests. When economics is shaped by elites alone, it loses its ability to serve the broader public and democratic development.
02.
Uncertainty and Complexity Are Central
African economies are shaped by structural change, informality, power relations, and global asymmetries. We reject theories built on unrealistic assumptions of perfect rationality, equilibrium, and frictionless markets.
03.
Inequality and Distribution Are Fundamental
Growth without justice is neither sustainable nor meaningful. Class, gender, race, region, and generation shape economic outcomes and must be central to analysis.
04.
Heterodox and Pluralist Approaches Are Essential
Political economy, feminist, institutional, post-Keynesian, ecological, and decolonial traditions provide vital tools for understanding African development pathways beyond neoclassical orthodoxy.
05.
History and Structure Matter
Colonial legacies, postcolonial state formation, debt, industrialisation trajectories, and past policy choices continue to shape present-day economic constraints and possibilities.
06.
Diversity Strengthens Economic Knowledge
Perspectives shaped by Africa's social, cultural, and gendered realities enrich economic thought and challenge narrow, universalist models.
07.
The Ecological Crisis Is an Economic Crisis
Climate change, resource depletion, and environmental stress pose profound challenges for African economies. Economic analysis must fully integrate ecological sustainability and just transitions.
08.
Multidisciplinary Engagement Is Vital
Economics cannot operate in isolation. AHEN collaborates with scholars across the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences to address Africa's complex development challenges holistically.